152 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



to Wolf, was one of most sun-spots, the bookworm took the 

 place of the cricket and cockroach in the chinks of the kitchen- 

 hearth. These periods of most and fewest sun-spots causing 

 aerial disturbance appear to promote grasshopper migration in 

 the northern hemisphere. About the year 1859 I happened, 

 when at Bath, to attend the Proprietary College on the Lansdown 

 Hill, where I meditated on astro-meteorological appearances. 

 Early in the autumn a Clouded Yellow Butterfly was seen in the 

 playground that was a perfect museum of local fossils, and later 

 on a little flight — I think of the Migratory Locust (Pachytylus 

 migratorius) — passed over it, travelling west ; one alighted on 

 the pathway at my feet, while several were caught by my play- 

 fellows, and they were placed in bottles of spirit by Mr. Glover 

 or one of his assistant under-masters. This, again, preceded a 

 year when the sun was turned into sackcloth, or became black 

 like goat's hair ; so say astronomers. 



The species of Staronotus, that vary wonderfully in size, 

 may be recognized by the lozenges gouged out above the 

 antennae that give the forehead a bevel. They may be seen 

 hopping about among Poterium spinosum that covers the hills 

 of Jerusalem with a thorny tangle that caught Abraham's ram, 

 and enjoying the fragrance of Ononis natrix, which no doubt was 

 one of the spices of King Solomon, who seems to have known 

 the moth- mullein, growing tall and lank around the town -walls, 

 as towers of perfume. Stauronotus genei, no larger than the 

 English meadow grasshoppers, may be recognized by the tri- 

 angular snaky spots on its hind femora, with which it plays 

 a bold " whip-whip ! " and in the presence of its female, moving 

 either alternately, it executes a meek and indistinct " wee-wee ! " 

 I have seen it disporting on the reddish-orange loam at Jeru- 

 salem in July, and at home on the tawny sand of Leon in 

 August, for it and its congeners, like other creations of the 

 desert, are protectively sand-coloured. The similar but larger 

 S. hauensteini, that has its hind shins reddish, is also musical. 

 Of a fine summer's day I have seen a thin mist spread south 

 over the Dead Sea, which, as seen from Bethany, shines like a 

 ribbon of smalt-blue in its sandy hollow, bordered on the east 

 by the precipices of Moab ; but fancy it must have been a flock 

 of birds or locusts. In 1898 a horde of the Morocco Locust 



